When I told him what had happened, he was real sorry.
"'I didn't know you thought of going out,' he said, 'or I would
have told you all about it. An' now sit down an' quiet yourself,
an' I'll tell you jus' how things is.' So down we sits, an' says
he, jus' as carm as a summer cloud, 'My dear, this is a lunertic
asylum. Now, don't jump,' he says; 'I didn't bring you here,
because I thought you was crazy, but because I wanted you to see
what kind of people they was who imagined themselves earls and
earl-esses, an' all that sort o' thing, an' to have an idea how the
thing worked after you'd been doing it a good while an' had got
used to it. I thought it would be a good thing, while I was Earl
Jiguel and you was a noble earl-ess, to come to a place where
people acted that way. I knowed you had read lots o' books about
knights and princes an' bloody towers, an' that you knowed all
about them things, but I didn't suppose you did know how them same
things looked in these days, an' a lunertic asylum was the only
place where you could see 'em. So I went to a doctor I knowed,' he
says, 'an' got a certificate from him to this private institution,
where we could stay for a while an' get posted on romantics.'
"'Then,' says I, 'the upshot was that you wanted to teach a
lesson.'
"'Jus' that,' says he.
"'All right,' says I; 'it's teached. An' now let's get out of this
as quick as we kin.'
"'That'll suit me,' he says, 'an' we'll leave by the noon train.
Pages:
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187